5 Lessons I Learned Finding Partners/Co-founders for My Projects

Published By zooboole

When I started learning electronics and programming in 2002, I used to get excited about sharing it with friends. I would not hesitate to form groups (like my AHA - Artificial Human Association in 2005) and I would say to them, "Be part of my team."

Most of these friends wouldn't mind. Most of them would go the extra mile, smile, or even make some comments to show me their support simply to avoid being the ones who discouraged me.

In general, everyone becomes inactive and idle over time. I would do everything alone and never complain about their inactivity because I didn't want to do something that could make them leave the team. I was basically trying harder to impress my partners to stick with me more than to work on the progress of the team and its projects.

I did this for many projects in the years that followed until recently. When I decided to go into entrepreneurship, I realized that this is the wrong way of doing things.

I remember a mentor once asked me, "What exactly does so-and-so of your partners do to contribute to the project?" And my answer was bland because although I knew they were not doing anything in particular, I was still trying to defend them in the face of the people that they were useful and contributed in some way.

I wouldn't conclude that this delayed me in my life. I take it all as an experience, and this experience will surely be useful someday.

So recently, I decided to form a new team around my SaaS oyakoo. Again, I went back to my old behavior of gathering friends. This time, I faced reality and decided to open my eyes to the hard truth: it never works like that.

During the process, among the friends I tried to invite, one openly asked me, "Ahmed, how many times have you tried forming teams around this project, and it never worked?" And he rejected the idea and instead asked me to hire him for any task I would want him to do for me. That sounded harsh then, but, hey, I am grateful now he said that.

Here are a few lessons I learned from this experience:

1. Goal-Orient Your Selection

Find people who embrace your dream, not you or your personality. After all, you are going to work on the project. For example, I have had partners who had no idea about how the project works. The people you need must satisfy these criteria:

• They embrace the idea with you.
• They believe in the idea or at least trust it can work.
• They have an intense desire to work on the idea or have an experience trying such a thing.
• They love discussing the idea (online, offline, on the phone, Google Meet, Zoom, etc.).
• They advise you before you can even ask a question.
• They are eager to improve and perfect the idea.
• They don't feel shy to represent your brand (idea).
• They see more of their personal satisfaction working on the idea than the offer you give them.

On the contrary, the wrong ones will do/be like this:

• They communicate less.
• You may even feel sometimes that you are bothering them.
• They will avoid communicating with you.
• They usually have excuses to avoid doing things or missing meetings.
• They are never clear in their decisions or position with you. One leg in, one leg out.

2. Avoid Spies

There is a category of people that you will meet who will try to join you to learn your trade secrets. They will try their best to appear OK for you to have them along.

• In general, they will talk less about your project, and they will make you talk more about that project and your action plans.
• In some cases, they never perceive you as a leader who deserves their respect. They feel they are better than you. And that's the first sickness that even pushes them to be like that with you. They believe they should build something better. Your ideas will be a plus for them instead.

3. Friendship Does Not Equal Partnership

Just because someone is a friend doesn't mean they will be the right partner. No. Some people may accept it, like some of my friends did back then. But remember, in most cases, they accept out of sympathy. You need active people to move your project to where you want it to be.

There is a tricky thing I noticed when it comes to friendship and partnership. In general, you would love to have a partner with whom you are free to express yourself. Someone with whom you can do or say anything. Someone with whom you can always reconcile after any quarrel.

This sounds like true friends, right? Yes, that's true friendship. But partnership must go beyond that:

• You must be able to express and separate your individual interests.
• You might have to sign papers for even simple things.
• You might even be forced to call the other by their title.
• You might even deny simple favors to your partner for business purposes.
• You might even be enemies on business terms and still be friends at home.
• etc.

You can see that you need people with a flexible attitude. In addition to that, of course, they must like working. Friends might be lenient about work too because you don't want to offend each other.

Don't just drag your friends into your projects because they have the same fears as you do and may not see beyond what you guys are used to. Some friends will not hesitate to scare you by telling you that it won't work.

4. They Must Bring Something Along: Skills

It's important that every team member brings a contribution through their skills. Personally, this is my main criterion. I actually love people who participate and contribute. In general, you don't have money when you start. Your skill will be your first valuable asset. It takes you from the ground to somewhere. It is even better when you have complementary skills. Imagine a backend developer teaming up with a frontend developer and a marketing person. That will be a great starting team.

Here too, I tried teaming up with people with no apparent skills. Among them, some had something special I was targeting, although in some cases, they are unaware of what I was looking for in them.

One most important takeaway here is that people you look for must have compatible skills for your project. You wouldn't take a cook for a software engineering project. Similarly, one should not feel rejected if their current skill set does not match the project they want to join.

5. FOMO Partners

Some people, for some reasons, get the fear of missing out on your idea. Although they might not be available or may not have the required skills, they will try to join you.

Some of these people will even pretend that could have helped you if they could or had the means requires fearing in case you break through you don't see them as deserters.

Always refer to the first category to find out who is truly with you.

Conclusion

I hope this serves you one day. I hope one or two things will serve you as a guideline in your quest. I cannot conclude without mentioning that our personality as team leaders also matters. Maybe we are the reason why others fail to team with us. I did not and do not hesitate to impose some self-criticism to prevent that from happening.

Besides, in some cases, I also failed to be with others on their teams. People who cannot be with you are not instantly your enemies or people who hate you. It's about bonding right for the right goals. It's about goals. You can even see criminal team up, for eveil goals. Sometimes, people can not bond with you because the time is not right for them or maybe their are going through situations that do not allow them to be available. So, never take anything too personal.

We have to work hard on ourselves as well, and continue to search for our perfect match for our goals.

And, keep working on your goals even if you haven't found a partner yet. Maybe your progress today will convaince a team mate or your next investor some day.